Once the RFI was announced and opened for submissions on March 31, 2025, the ministry enlisted support from New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) and Invest New Zealand to help identify and approach potential international candidates.
In an April 16, 2025 update, NZTE food, beverage and consumer goods sector lead Sarah Hindle said the agency was leveraging its international grocery contacts to assess appetite for the New Zealand market.
“We are profiling the RFI with these contacts to gauge their current views on the attractiveness of the New Zealand market, any barriers or challenges to entry they can identify, and understand whether these contacts are likely to respond to the RFI,” Hindle said.
Who was on the list?
The list compiled by NZTE covered a broad range of grocery companies, from large multinationals to smaller domestic chains with a larger footprint.
They included:
United Kingdom: Tesco (as previously reported), Sainsbury’s and Iceland.
France: Carrefour – one of the world’s largest retailers by revenue, with more than 15,700 stores across 40 countries – and Auchan, which operates about 2900 stores in 12 countries.
Germany: Aldi and Schwarz Group, which owns Lidl and Kaufland.
Spain: Mercadona; DIA; and El Corte Inglés (via its SuperCOR supermarkets).
Netherlands: Ahold‑Delhaize, which operates nine retail brands across 17 markets following its 2016 merger.
United States: Amazon (via Amazon Fresh) and Walmart.
Singapore: FairPrice Group; Cold Storage; and Lazada Group, which owns online grocer RedMart.
Malaysia: Macrovalue, which owns Cold Storage Malaysia as well as Giant and Mercato.
Australia: Aldi Australia, Harris Farm Markets, and Coles.
Officials also approached New Zealand‑based retailers with international backing or scale ambitions, including The Warehouse, Costco and Farro Fresh.
Ministerial involvement
While direct engagement by agency officials was required to profile prospective grocery competitors, involvement by Government ministers, including Nicola Willis, Todd McClay and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon became part of NZTE’s approach.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment asked NZTE officials to consider whether a more “senior-level approach (minister to CEO) might help with securing a response from the target list”.
After discussion with NZTE’s international teams and Invest NZ, officials believed there could be value in working to secure separate conversations between Willis and the chief executive of Schwarz Group, and the chief executive of Tesco.
It’s now understood that a planned meeting in June with Tesco did not go ahead, with Willis’ office attributing this to a “change in leadership” at Tesco, and no meeting between Willis and senior leadership from Schwarz Group has taken place.
Subsequent communications between officials laid out plans to leverage overseas ministerial engagements to support their cause, including the Prime Minister’s April 2025 trip to the UK.
In the same briefing by Hindle, officials targeted a networking event held by NZTE in London on April 22, 2025, as an opportunity to connect with senior decision makers in the UK grocery sector.
To facilitate the discussions, NZTE invited representatives from Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Marks and Spencer and Waitrose to the event – although the briefing states that it was still confirming attendance, and no other correspondence reviewed by the Herald speaks to any outcomes.
Officials also targeted a visit by Trade Minister Todd McClay to the UK in mid-May 2025, believing there was an opportunity for him to meet with senior representatives as part of his trip’s itinerary.
Making contact with government affairs contacts in the US grocery sector appeared to be harder for officials, with Hindle noting that the “current political context is making it more challenging”.
The documents contain no indication that any overseas supermarket operator committed to entering the New Zealand market – highlighting the difficulty policymakers face in shifting competition in a sector long dominated by two large local players.
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.
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